Win a Home Speaker System with The Hobbit Trilogy
To celebrate the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and the The Motion Picture Trilogy Box Set, available now on and Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD, we’re giving you the chance to win a surround sound home speaker system worth over £1,000, plus a copy of the Trilogy Box Set.
To be in with a chance of winning this prize, send an email to ukcomps@ign.com with "I want to win home cinema speakers with The Hobbit!" in the subject line, including your name, date of birth and the answer to the question below in the body of the email:
What nickname has been given to the diseased Greenwood Forest?
a) Blackwood
Sue Storm Can Fly in the New Fantastic Four Movie
The second trailer for Josh Trank's take on Marvel's first family came out over the weekend. If you haven't seen it, check it out now, then read our full analysis down below:
00:13 – Tim Blake Nelson heads up the committee reviewing Dr. Franklin Storm's research. He plays Harvey Elder, who also goes by the villainous alter-ego Mole Man in the Marvel source material. Nelson previously played Samuel Sterns in Marvel's The Incredible Hulk opposite Ed Norton, but never got to play the Leader, despite his character being set-up for a sequel.
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China Gets a Release Date
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China will be available in the Americas tomorrow, April 21 and in Europe and Australia on Wednesday, April 22.
To celebrate the news, Ubisoft has also released a new trailer showing off gameplay of assassinations and offering a glimpse into the story.
Set in 16th-century China, the new Jiajang Emperor has purged all he feels could endanger his throne, including the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins. Shao Jun, a young member, managed to flee West to train under Ezio Auditore, and has now returned to restore the Chinese Brotherhood.
When we got a chance to try out Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China ahead of launch, we came away impressed by how fluidly all of the core tenants of the series made the move to 2D.
Slow Down, Bull Review
Poor Esteban has a bit of an image problem. The shy, blue bull wants nothing more than to collect vibrant decorations to use in his art to share with the world. Sadly, due to his perfectionist nature, he is never satisfied with anything he creates. That is the conceit of the Insomniac-developed Slow Down, Bull, a game set up to donate half its profits to Starlight Children's Foundation, a charity aimed at improving the lives of children and their families. Slow Down, Bull is an item-collection game with wisdom to share for the overachievers in all of us. It's a fair game, if not an innovative one, pleasant to the eyes, though unfortunately held back in places due to rigid controls and some frustrating level design.
In Slow Down, Bull, you don't control Esteban so much as you guide his direction. The bull dashes forward across colorful 2-D landscapes. You can alter his course only by pressing two buttons which steer him left or right, accessing these buttons either by the clicks of a mouse, or the triggers on a controller. You bounce off walls to gain speed, avoiding dangerous obstacles and wandering creatures that inhabit the worlds, while collecting decorations ranging from buttons to shells and googly eyes--which follow in a floating clump behind him--for Esteban's beloved art projects, all within a time limit. Ramming trees and hedges along the walls causes them to drop decorations as well as stars, which add a multiplier bonus to the items you collect, while picking up random spawning clocks provides a few extra seconds.
Stress is the central element to watch for in Slow Down, Bull. It quickly builds up every time you steer, as well as when you hold down the buttons to briefly charge forward. Reaching the breaking point causes Esteban to become enraged and lose control, sending him on a path of destruction, trampling decorations into useless grey clumps. Hitting one of the many meandering inhabitants scatters your inventory onto the ground. And the inhabitants become impossible to avoid if they're right in front of you when Esteban snaps under pressure. Running straight, bouncing into walls, or splashing into a pool of refreshing water causes Esteban's stress levels to fall back to normal.
The progression in Slow Down, Bull takes its cues from many popular mobile games. As in Vector or Candy Crush Saga, levels are split into sections, each ending in a locked gate. Opening the gate requires you to collect a set number of hoof prints (replacing the more common stars), which are gathered by reaching point objectives during levels. You can collect up to three colored hoof prints in a level. The required number of decorations needed to gather all three is displayed by a progress bar that fills with every payload of collectables dropped into bins that dot each level. Finishing a stage rewards you with a single hoof print, but moving on from a section can require multiple attempts.
Slow Down, Bull is challenging, though mostly in a positive way. As your bull-steering expertise grows, so too does your ability to gather even more treasured goods. You will begin to notice the areas in levels which promise to yield a high number of trinkets, as well as recognize the best times to turn in your collection of items before returning to nab some stars in order to eventually yield an even larger surplus of decorations. In many of the more well-designed levels, gathering two or even three hoof prints occurs smoothly, leaving you feeling both rewarded and satisfied. However, this isn't always the case.
There are a few levels that are far too trying in their attempt to stop your decoration-collecting schemes, made more difficult due to stiff controls. These stages waste little time swarming their rooms and corridors with vase- and window-carriers, blocking all but the narrowest of escape routes. If you can imagine awkwardly steering a bovine rocket through these obstacles, as you try to gather random souvenirs while an angry bull hunter gives chase, knowing that one mistake means a restart, then you have a sense of just how aggravating this game can become. Better controls could have made things flow more naturally, but sadly they only exacerbate the issue. When you're presented with too many obstacles (and you will be), trying to make precise turns to dodge them becomes a useless endeavor. It becomes especially difficult when much of that fight is against Esteban's fickle stress level. During the worst moments, for example, trying to hastily avoid every danger onscreen merely enrages the stressed-out Esteban, who runs directly into the very enemy you're desperately trying to avoid in the first place. Let's just say that Esteban isn't the only one occasionally hitting his head against a wall over events in Slow Down, Bull.
The playful, clever art design, however, is wonderful, and kept me from staying too irritable with the light-hearted Slow Down, Bull for long. The aesthetics shrewdly mimes what you would expect from a child's imaginative art class presentation. Popsicle sticks make up barriers encompassing scenery crafted of pieces of green and yellow construction paper, creating a colorful grassland field, where blue patches of water crumple and bend as Esteban tramples across. In other areas, colored pasta makes up the shells of a sandy beach, and pink flowers attached to sticks bring the beautiful pink hues of a cherry blossom tree to Japanese-themed stages. Esteban himself is made up of blue and purple hatching lines of a crayon or colored pencil. This drawing technique is further highlighted in the game's adorable cut scenes, which star Esteban and other characters such as his sassy feline sister Mango and the relentless bull catcher Annette.
Despite some nagging issues, Slow Down, Bull is charming, with plenty of good messages to share for the whole family. During some cut scenes, the game takes a moment to provide lines of encouragement, from the value of hard work to never giving up on your goals, even if what you create, be it art or otherwise, isn't quite perfect. It's fair to say that the game would sit well with children or parents looking for a game with a cheerful nature and some worthwhile advice--though some of the more difficult stages do tarnish the theme. Still, Slow Down, Bull is a mildly entertaining little adventure, worth a look if only to help support a good cause. And that's something of which I feel Esteban would calmly approve.
Slow Down, Bull Review
Poor Esteban has a bit of an image problem. The shy, blue bull wants nothing more than to collect vibrant decorations to use in his art to share with the world. Sadly, due to his perfectionist nature, he is never satisfied with anything he creates. That is the conceit of the Insomniac-developed Slow Down, Bull, a game set up to donate half its profits to Starlight Children's Foundation, a charity aimed at improving the lives of children and their families. Slow Down, Bull is an item-collection game with wisdom to share for the overachievers in all of us. It's a fair game, if not an innovative one, pleasant to the eyes, though unfortunately held back in places due to rigid controls and some frustrating level design.
In Slow Down, Bull, you don't control Esteban so much as you guide his direction. The bull dashes forward across colorful 2-D landscapes. You can alter his course only by pressing two buttons which steer him left or right, accessing these buttons either by the clicks of a mouse, or the triggers on a controller. You bounce off walls to gain speed, avoiding dangerous obstacles and wandering creatures that inhabit the worlds, while collecting decorations ranging from buttons to shells and googly eyes--which follow in a floating clump behind him--for Esteban's beloved art projects, all within a time limit. Ramming trees and hedges along the walls causes them to drop decorations as well as stars, which add a multiplier bonus to the items you collect, while picking up random spawning clocks provides a few extra seconds.
Stress is the central element to watch for in Slow Down, Bull. It quickly builds up every time you steer, as well as when you hold down the buttons to briefly charge forward. Reaching the breaking point causes Esteban to become enraged and lose control, sending him on a path of destruction, trampling decorations into useless grey clumps. Hitting one of the many meandering inhabitants scatters your inventory onto the ground. And the inhabitants become impossible to avoid if they're right in front of you when Esteban snaps under pressure. Running straight, bouncing into walls, or splashing into a pool of refreshing water causes Esteban's stress levels to fall back to normal.
The progression in Slow Down, Bull takes its cues from many popular mobile games. As in Vector or Candy Crush Saga, levels are split into sections, each ending in a locked gate. Opening the gate requires you to collect a set number of hoof prints (replacing the more common stars), which are gathered by reaching point objectives during levels. You can collect up to three colored hoof prints in a level. The required number of decorations needed to gather all three is displayed by a progress bar that fills with every payload of collectables dropped into bins that dot each level. Finishing a stage rewards you with a single hoof print, but moving on from a section can require multiple attempts.
Slow Down, Bull is challenging, though mostly in a positive way. As your bull-steering expertise grows, so too does your ability to gather even more treasured goods. You will begin to notice the areas in levels which promise to yield a high number of trinkets, as well as recognize the best times to turn in your collection of items before returning to nab some stars in order to eventually yield an even larger surplus of decorations. In many of the more well-designed levels, gathering two or even three hoof prints occurs smoothly, leaving you feeling both rewarded and satisfied. However, this isn't always the case.
There are a few levels that are far too trying in their attempt to stop your decoration-collecting schemes, made more difficult due to stiff controls. These stages waste little time swarming their rooms and corridors with vase- and window-carriers, blocking all but the narrowest of escape routes. If you can imagine awkwardly steering a bovine rocket through these obstacles, as you try to gather random souvenirs while an angry bull hunter gives chase, knowing that one mistake means a restart, then you have a sense of just how aggravating this game can become. Better controls could have made things flow more naturally, but sadly they only exacerbate the issue. When you're presented with too many obstacles (and you will be), trying to make precise turns to dodge them becomes a useless endeavor. It becomes especially difficult when much of that fight is against Esteban's fickle stress level. During the worst moments, for example, trying to hastily avoid every danger onscreen merely enrages the stressed-out Esteban, who runs directly into the very enemy you're desperately trying to avoid in the first place. Let's just say that Esteban isn't the only one occasionally hitting his head against a wall over events in Slow Down, Bull.
The playful, clever art design, however, is wonderful, and kept me from staying too irritable with the light-hearted Slow Down, Bull for long. The aesthetics shrewdly mimes what you would expect from a child's imaginative art class presentation. Popsicle sticks make up barriers encompassing scenery crafted of pieces of green and yellow construction paper, creating a colorful grassland field, where blue patches of water crumple and bend as Esteban tramples across. In other areas, colored pasta makes up the shells of a sandy beach, and pink flowers attached to sticks bring the beautiful pink hues of a cherry blossom tree to Japanese-themed stages. Esteban himself is made up of blue and purple hatching lines of a crayon or colored pencil. This drawing technique is further highlighted in the game's adorable cut scenes, which star Esteban and other characters such as his sassy feline sister Mango and the relentless bull catcher Annette.
Despite some nagging issues, Slow Down, Bull is charming, with plenty of good messages to share for the whole family. During some cut scenes, the game takes a moment to provide lines of encouragement, from the value of hard work to never giving up on your goals, even if what you create, be it art or otherwise, isn't quite perfect. It's fair to say that the game would sit well with children or parents looking for a game with a cheerful nature and some worthwhile advice--though some of the more difficult stages do tarnish the theme. Still, Slow Down, Bull is a mildly entertaining little adventure, worth a look if only to help support a good cause. And that's something of which I feel Esteban would calmly approve.
Watch the New Jurassic World Trailer
The new Jurassic World trailer has landed. Check it out up above.
It's definitely the most action-packed, dinosaur-filled footage today, and gives us an extended look at the park's new genetically-spliced attraction, the Indominus Rex.
The CGI has also been further refined, which is something we noticed in the last trailer drop. You watch closer analysis of that in the following video:
Promotion for the movie is ramping up, with the trailer coming shortly after two new posters for the upcoming blockbuster.
Halo 5: Guardians Trailer Shows Spartan Locke Kicking Ass
Microsoft has released a new trailer for Halo 5: Guardians, showing the UNSC elite manhunter Spartan Locke taking out Covenant while in pursuit of Master Chief.
Additionally it's been announced anyone pre-ordering the shooter from GameStop in the US will get access to the Hunter-Class armor set seen in the trailer for use with Spartan Locke in multiplayer.
Alongside the new armor, highlights from the trailer include both new weapons and abilities that look set to mix-up the gameplay options we're used to having available to us.
Microsoft announced the release date for Halo 5: Guardians just last month. In other recent Halo news, the studio head for Halo 5: Guardians, Josh Holmes, revealed last week that the title will have only have dedicated servers for multiplayer, adding “That's true for matchmaking AND customs. There is no P2P."
Is a New Vita Coming?
A new model of PlayStation Vita could be coming soon, as a trademark for a redesigned take on Sony's handheld has been filed in Japan.
The trademark, which first surfaced on Twitter, provides any early look at the device. Unsurprisingly, it looks very similar to last year's 2000 model, albeit with the addition of what appears to be an HDMI port, as pointed out by NeoGAF user Jignx.
Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm Gets a Release Date
Blizzard has announced Heroes of the Storm will officially launch on June 2.
The free-to-play team brawler, currently in closed beta, will open its doors to all for open beta beginning on May 20.
As of the most recent update, which saw Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner join the roster, 30 fighters are available for duking it out in seven different battlegrounds. More will be released in due course.
For more on Heroes of the Storm and all things eSports, check out IGN Arena.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.
Godus Co-Creator Leaves Molyneux Studio
Jack Attridge, co-creator of Godus alongside Peter Molyneux, is leaving development studio 22Cans.
In an interview with The Guardian, Attridge outlines the reasons behind his departure.
In the interview, Attridge says that "I realised I was much more of an advisor at 22Cans and I wanted to be able to steer my own ship". He also notes that he was looking to leave 22Cans even before the controversy surrounding Godus in February.